This invention relates to an on-line system and method for processing information relating to the wear of turbine components. More specifically, this invention relates to an on-line system and method of processing information relating to the wear of combustion system interface components of a turbine system.
Turbine systems have been used to generate electricity for many years. As one example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,749,218 issued to Cromer et al. on May 12, 1998, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference, discloses a gas turbine system for generating electricity. This gas turbine system includes a combustion system having a wear reduction kit. The wear reduction kit improves the wear characteristics at interfaces of various combustion system components which are subjected to wear as a result of combustion noise induced vibrations. The wear reduction kit allows time intervals between consecutive combustion system inspections to be increased by reducing the relative movement and associated wear of interface parts of the combustion system. With reference to FIGS. 1A–1E, the wear reduction kit of the combustion system includes, for example, the following components: (1) U-shaped wear inserts 42 and seals 40 for combustion system transition piece 16 having frame 24. Wear inserts 42 and seals 40 allow frame 24 of transition piece 16 to be secured to a first turbine stage 18. The wear resistance of slot 38 in frame 24 of transition piece 16 may be increased by choosing an appropriate material for wear inserts 42. (See FIGS. 1A and 1B).
(2) H-shaped guide blocks 60 and guide finger covers 70 for bullhorn fingers 56, 58. The interface between H-shaped guide blocks 60 and bullhorn fingers 56, 58 including bullhorn guide finger covers 70 allow combustion liner 20 to be secured to transition piece 16. The materials forming H-shaped guide blocks 60 and guide finger covers 70 are appropriately chosen to form a wear couple which reduces the wear at the interface of the H-shaped guide blocks 60 and bullhorn fingers 56. (See FIGS. 1A and 1C).
(3) A flow sleeve stop 96 having an elongated stem 102 covered by a replaceable U-shaped strip 106 and a liner stop 110. Flow sleeve stop 96 and liner stop 110 form a wear couple which enables combustion liner 20 to be inserted axially within flow sleeve 22 and to limit axial movement of combustion liner 20 within flow sleeve 22 in a direction toward transition piece 16. (See FIGS. 1A and 1D).
(4) A weld deposit material 138 and a combustion liner cap assembly 136 having an annular mounting ring 142. Weld deposit material 138 is deposited on a radially outer collar 126 of fuel nozzle tip 124 of fuel nozzle 12. The materials of deposit material 138 and ring 142 form a compatible wear couple so that most of the wear will occur on weld deposit 138 rather than ring 142 of the more complex and costly combustion liner cap assembly 136. (See FIGS. 1A and 1E).
(5) Cross fire tube 156 received within a hole 146 of combustion liner 20 and a cross fire tube collar 148. An interface is formed where cross fire tube 156 is telescopically received within cross fire tube collar 148. Cross fire tube collar 148 may be formed of a harder material than the material forming cross fire tube 156 and thus most of the wear experienced at this interface is predictably exhibited on the softer cross fire tube 156. (See FIGS. 1A and 1F).
Other inserts, seals, blocks, covers, liners, stops, strips, rings, caps, tubes and/or collars may be placed at the other interfaces of the turbine system as part of the wear reduction kit. For example, with reference to FIGS. 1A and 1G, a wear coating 171 is applied to a hula seal 170 which is arranged between transition piece 16 and combustion liner 20. A corresponding wear coating 172 is applied to transition piece 16 so that both wear coatings 171 and 172 are arranged between transition piece 16 and hula seal 170 attached to combustion liner 20. The material forming wear coating 172 may be softer than wear coating 171 so that wear on hula seal 170 itself can be minimized.
The respective amounts of wear of each of the components of the wear reduction kit (e.g., inserts, seals, blocks, covers, liners, stops, strips, rings, caps, tubes, collars, strips, etc.) at interfaces of the turbine system and other turbine system components are evaluated during inspections by field technicians. In particular, the field technicians may quantifiably measure the amounts of wear (in mils for example) or determine a qualitative wear range category (e.g., high wear, medium wear or light wear) of each of the wear reduction kit components. Data reflecting the wear measurements or wear category determinations is typically recorded by field technicians in individual spreadsheets. These spreadsheets, however, lack the capability to provide centralized access to the collection of data. Technicians who did not perform the wear measurements or wear category determinations would therefore not have prompt access to this and other inspection information. Moreover, the spreadsheets do not prompt the field technicians to enter consistent inputs over numerous inspections. There has thus been no formalized process for consistently capturing and effectively processing inspection information including wear related data made by field technicians.
Accordingly, there remains a need in the art to efficiently process information relating to the wear of turbine system components including efficiently receiving, managing, monitoring, sorting, searching and displaying data. In particular, there remains a need to provide centralized access to a database of information relating to the wear of turbine system components such as a combustion system's wear reduction kit components. It would therefore be beneficial to enable wear related information to be accessed by and presented in an interactive, easy-to-read interface to enable users to enter, review, sort, edit, update, search, output and/or report the information in an efficient manner and to use the data for various calculations and evaluations. It would also be beneficial to prompt field technicians or other users to enter inspection data such as wear-related data in a consistent manner.